The Death of the Stars
by kweenofalldreams13
Summary: It seems she's lost everything to war: her father, her friends, her family. It also seems she's got nothing left to gain. Death and his minions change everything. Rating subject to change.
1. One Sloane

**Author's Note:** A Battle: Los Angeles fic. Will take place in the alternating points of view of Sloane O'Reilly and Corporal Lee Imlay. I own nothing but my OC and her suggested romance. If you have any input on the military-based plot, please don't refrain from reviewing! I need all assistance I can get and all knowledge that you may have about the US Marine Corps (oorah!).

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One–Sloane

The sky had gone grey and black with the plumes of smoke and smell of gunpowder. Most all the officers in the station were dead, and to think I'd stopped in to say hello to Chris's dad and grab a doughnut or two with him and his buddies. But there they lay, collapsed in pools of blood on the floor, gunshot wounds piercing each and every one of them. They were still warm, but the discoloration was beginning to take place, as a greyish tinge had taken to their skin. The Hispanic father and son were curled up with two girls, one smaller than the son, the other in her preteen stages, and another woman. I stood in my corner, staring at them. What unity did they have, when all I had was falling apart?

Dad was dead. We'd received the call from Afghanistan a few nights prior to the meteor shower, or whatever it was, and now that the meteors had hit, chances were Mom had died too. Mom, Jacob, my best friend Crystal...chances were, most of my friends and family were probably dead. And it was only a matter of time before I was to join them. There was no winning here, when it came to this strange extraterrestrial race.

"M-Miss?" stammered the Hispanic man, offering out his hand to me. "P-please stay with us." I looked down to the eyes of his son, then those of the two girls. They were pleading and innocent. What had they lost to this war? I obliged, taking the man's hand and huddling up with them. In an instant, the small boy had wrapped himself about my waist, the tears running from his eyes down my shirt. And my hand made its way to his back, patting it lightly.

"Shh, sweetie, it's gonna be okay, I promise," I whispered, kissing the top of his head. Had his mother died in recent events?

"Hector, por favor," his father muttered, and the small boy retreated back. "I'm sorry, Miss, he...my wife...his mother was killed in the gunfire this morning." I nodded.

"I'm so s-sorry, sir," I mumbled back, running a hand through my hair. "My dad passed away in Afghanistan about a week ago. He was in the Marines. Y'know, they're supposed to be coming in a little bit, huh? They're supposed to come save us. They're gonna come get us and it'll all be okay, okay?" Hector looked up at me with hope in his little eyes. I tried to smile at him, but for the hot moisture running from my own eyes and down my cheeks. Hector's dad in turn patted my back.

"Uh, there, there, Miss." I put on my best smile. "It'll be okay?"

"Yeah, you're right."

BANG! What sounded like whispers came from wherever the crash was, and we huddled up closer. There were shuffles, and they were closing in on us. I tightened my grip around Hector and the little girls. _This is it. I'm about to die. I'm about to see Dad, and probably Mom, probably Jacob, probably Crystal. And you know what? I think I'm ready for it. I think it's right this time_. I looked up into the face of Death.

"U.S. MARINES!" shouted Death, aiming his machine gun into my face. I threw my hands up on instinct, and I was no longer staring at the inside of the barrel. There were quite a few of them, the Marines, and they were all clad with weapons and the typical camo I saw in so many of the candid pictures Dad was always taking. After a long, frozen moment, the woman stood up. "How many of you are there?" Death questioned, his enormous cleft chin blocking most of my view on his words.

"S-six, three kids." Death looked to the rest of his men, and nodded.

One of them grabbed my elbow, and I snuck him a questioning look. For one of Death's minions, he could have been an angel.


	2. Two Lee

**Disclaimer:** I own...well, not much. Just Sloane. There's gonna be some AU here, because Lenihan lives. The virgin's cool.

**Author's Note:** This one's a bit longer than the last one, hope y'all like. If my writing style changes, it's because I'm trying to get the characters to have a bit more of a personal touch on the chapters. Imlay might seem a little less educated than Sloane. Please review and I hope you enjoy :)

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Two–Lee

I jerked the redheaded girl up by the arm. "C'mon now," I muttered, more to myself than her, but she quickened her pace anyhow, leaping to her feet then bending down to lace up her shoes again. There was only so much time we had, and those damn bastards were moving probably twice as fast as we were. She looked up at me, her eyes wide open and clear like a kid's, but her face looked a lot older. Twenty-something older. "You need no help or somethin'?" I asked, but she shook her head real quick.

"No, I got it," she shot back, looking back up. Lord, but she was good-lookin'. Red hair and everything. Be good for the virgin to get some action 'fore he almost died again. "Hey, you heard of Bryan O'Reilly?" I looked around, before I saw she was talkin' to me. "Yeah, you, uh, uh, Eye-Black."

"It's Imlay. Lee Imlay. And no, I guess I ain't. Your war hero uncle or somethin'?" We was both movin' now, along with the rest of the boys. Stavrou shot me a quick eyebrow thing, with a big ol' grin on his face, and kept the pace up ahead of us. The girl shook her head fast, her hair swingin' around her shoulders. I fiddled with a string on my pack and handed it to her. "Here. You oughta tie up your hair, so it don't get in the way. We got a heli comin' for you guys, all the hurt ones and the civilians." She took it and did her hair up in this nice little ponytail.

"Thanks. And no, Bryan O'Reilly was my dad. Just wonderin' if maybe you'd fought with him." She paused, looking down. "Died a week or two back." I nodded all slow-like and ran a hand through my hair, but we kept going, the both of us turning at every sound that came from the surroundings. Finally we got outside, but it looked like the helicopter was already leavin'. Nantz near caught up, carryin' the little girl, but they didn't have enough room. Leni sat down next to Nantz's feet, rubbing his head in pain. Since the bastard-ass aliens caught up with him he started feeling the sufferin' of it all.

After a second or two, the heli took off. The bitches. A couple of our guys waved at us, didn't even let the kids on, and then some crazy-ass blasting came out of nowhere. Blasted the heli to bits. They had the goddamn skies now. We all got our shit assembled back into the cop station.

"Shit," she was mumbling, folding up into the fetal position against a wall. Her eyes were dripping like crazy. I didn't really know what to do, so I kinda patted her on the knee. She looked up, biting her lip. "Isn't this going to be just a regular walk in the park." Her voice was all sarcastic and whatnot and her eyes looked blank, lost. From then on it seemed more like she started to talk to herself than me: "Wonder if that's how Dad died. In a blaze of goddamn glory, just like Dad would want to go. That goddamn bastard..." The random string of words continued into a mutter that I couldn't make out anymore. I nudged her with my elbow, nodding my head towards the heart of the station.

"Uh...think we should get goin' again?" She looked up at me, a big old glare on her pretty little face.

"You should be hurrying up with the rest of your Marines. They probably need you right about now. Don't worry about me, I'll be goddamn _fine_." She untied and then tied her shoes again, starting to look through the drawers on the desk next to her. "Aha." She found a small safe in one of 'em, and picked one of them bobby pins out of her hair. Then she started workin' at the lock on it, and I stood there like a dumbass watching. "Get outta here, Imlay, I'm trying to help your cause!" I nodded again, like a dumbass, and got my ass out of there.

What an angry ginger would want from a city cop's friggin' safe when crazy-ass aliens were invading Earth, well, that was beyond me, but, hell, did I listen to her. I found Nantz, Martinez, Ad-Adukwu or whatever the hell it was, the Air Force chick (stupid Air Force...when the hell were they gonna start bombing?), and a couple of civilians in this one room, all standing around an alien. It was lying on the floor, and it was hurt. Not dead, but hurt. They kept peeling back its skin by layers and stabbing, but the goddamn thing wouldn't die.

"C'mon!" Nantz hollered, jamming his bayonet hard into what looked like the chest, in the middle, and the thing finally spazzed out and seemed to die. He smiled huge and looked at the chick, the Air Force chick. "The right of the heart. We have to hit 'em in the right of where the heart would be." We all kinda nodded at him and got up. Time to get moving again. Nantz stood up and started marchin' on next to me. "What the hell'd you do with that civilian girl anways, Imlay?"

"Idonno, boss, she started breakin' into some cop's safe and kicked me out. She was in such a bad mood I...uh, thought I should...uh...leave." Then of course he gave me a look. You're such an idiot, Imlay, takin' orders from a civilian. A _chick_ civilian. A ginger-ass chick civilian. Who was ginger and everything. And then Nantz decided he was gonna laugh at me, all smiley and whatever. Today was a really, really weird day. And it was only noon.

"Smart man, Imlay. Very smart."

"Uh-uh-uh w-what do you mean, Staff Sergeant Nantz?" sputtered out Leni, rubbin' all crazy at that spot on his head, and Nantz went and smacked a hand down on Leni's shoulder.

"Just a tip, Lenihan. The woman's always right. Especially when she has a gun," he added, lookin' between the Air Force Chick and the ginger chick. Who _both_ had guns now. Ginger was all smiley now, too, and waving her little pistol around as we moved. "I'm going to trust that you know how to use that, civilian?" She nodded, her smile spreading over the rest of her face. God, but she was good-lookin'.

"Daddy was a Marine, he taught me how to man every piece of weaponry before he died, Staff Sergeant. I would never handle any equipment I didn't know how to program, sir." That little bitch. She knew her way around shit.

"Well, welcome to the war, Miss...?" She looked at me, battin' those goddamn eyelashes of hers.

"O'Reilly," I said, almost robotically. "Right?"

"Sloane O'Reilly," she corrected, tapping me on the nose with her gun. I flinched and she, of course, laughed. Not no stupid girly giggle, but hell, she laughed. "Lucky I didn't pull the trigger there, _Imlay_."

Ugh.


End file.
